While you were living in fear and practicing duck and cover, I was wishing I could go on a field trip to Moscow.
I'm not quite old enough for the duck-and-cover days (although I did enjoy The Atomic Cafe)
I wasn't talking about a paralyzing fear, but more about the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times. People make certain assumptions about the way the world is, and I think that those have changed quite a bit in a relatively short span of time. When someone talks about "the nuclear threat" today, they mean something very different from what those words meant back in the 80s.
When I was in high school in the mid-1980s, the idea of a massive nuclear exchange between the US and USSR seemed very real. We had all grown up with the assumption that a nuclear World War was just around the corner.
Now we're more concerned with the rogue state or terrorist nuclear weapon.
I wonder if someone even 10 years younger than I am can understand how much things have changed?
The real trick is to distinguish the prima donnas who contribute from those who don't.
I've worked with prima donnas who were worth every headache they caused, but I've also worked with folks who thought they were worth a lot more than they really were.
Never underestimate how much you can learn from a "useless" project like this. When I'm trying to figure something out, I usually have to come up with a "useless" project to play with. For example, right now I have a truly hideous PHP site hiding in a directory on one of my web sites. The site will never amount to anything, but I'm learning a lot about PHP in the process.
This project strikes me as the same sort of intellectual exercise. It will never produce a useful product, but some of the folks involved may do great things down the road.
We already have real time traffic data in many cities - example San Diego.
Granted, this will supply more data, but I can't see how its going to help congestion much. It's just going to provide more proof that you can't get from point a to point b during rush hour.
Should we be developing substitutes or alternatives for ActiveX instead of trying to recreate it?
We should do both. You can't lose site of the fact that one of the "barriers to entry" for Linux is the complaint that there are still things you can do on a Windows based system (like viewing ActiveX based websites) that you can't do (or can't do easily) on Linux. (Now, don't get me wrong - I generally prefer clean, simple web pages.)
Your point is still a good one, though. While I think that "imitating and emulating Microsoft" is often worthwhile (thank god for SAMBA!), that shouldn't be the only goal.
If this pans out,maybe battery life will cease to be an issue. Of course, we'll have to wait 15-20 years to find out:-(
The tiny device can be toggled on and off using a single electron. The experiment could eventually lead to vast power savings over today's transistors, which require several hundred to millions of electrons to perform the same function.
Is anybody else freaked out by how much this sounds like the replicator on Star Trek?
Atom holography is another stunning idea. Instead of making an image in light as done in conventional holography, atom optics would make the hologram of atoms.
"What this means is, we could make a real, 3-dimensional replica of some object. We could copy objects." Meystre said
Quoted from this article, which was linked to in the posted article.
Sounds pretty slick, but wouldn't it still be vulnerable if "bob" or "alice" (from the example in the story) left their computer (or other communication device) where other people had access to it?
bootable for installation or as a system?
on
FreeBSD on DVD
·
· Score: 1
Looking at the site, it doesn't say anything about being bootable that I could quickly find. Did the original poster mean bootable as a system, ala DemoLinux, or bootable for installation?
If bootable as a system, that would be something worth checking out!
For Linux on a standard CD, try demolinux
on
FreeBSD on DVD
·
· Score: 1
Having a fully functional system on a disk is extremely handy. I've been using DemoLinux for a while, and having a reasonably full linux system on a bootable CDROM has been darn handy on a number of occasions.
It would be nice to have a DVD version - it would be nice to have the space to install more applications - but on the other hand, there are a lot more systems out today that can boot from a standard CD than from a DVD.
I thought this quote from the article was interesting:
* A GPL-licensed application pool is indeed forming around Linux, and Microsoft can't figure out how to attack it. You can't attack the companies, because--as Eazel recently proved--the software's still around, even if the company shuts down or gives up on the product.
Tha ability of GPL'ed software to outlast companies and organizations that create them is an interesting feature to focus on. Because of this capability, GPL software would seem to have more chances to "get it right" than Microsoft's traditional competitors.
StarOffice, Sun's open source productivity application suite that includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and database applications for the Solaris, Windows and Linux platforms, would replace Applix on more than 10,000 of DISA's Unix workstations at 600 client organizations worldwide, said Susan Grabau, the product line manager for StarOffice
There really doesn't seem to be much impact to MS here. Sounds like a shift from one non-MS solution to another, and probably only on workstations that are already running a non-MS OS. Now, if they start using StarOffice on all their Windows machines, that would be news!
BTW, I've used StarOffice on a Windows platform - its not bad.
"This seems to be a very wide ranging restriction applying to compilers (gcc), editors (vim, staroffice), filesystems (backup on linux server), web-browsers (mozilla logging into some online tool provider), Java (sun's virtual machine)."
Here is the relevant part of the EULA
(c) Open Source. Recipient's license rights to the Software are conditioned upon Recipient (i) not distributing such Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with Potentially Viral Software (as defined below); and (ii) not using Potentially Viral Software (e.g. tools) to develop Recipient software which includes the Software, in whole or in part. For purposes of the foregoing, "Potentially Viral Software" means software which is licensed pursuant to terms that: (x) create, or purport to create, obligations for Microsoft with respect to the Software or (y) grant, or purport to grant, to any third party any rights to or immunities under Microsoft's intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Software. By way of example but not limitation of the foregoing, Recipient shall not distribute the Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with any Publicly Available Software. "Publicly Available Software" means each of (i) any software that contains, or is derived in any manner (in whole or in part) from, any software that is distributed as free software, open source software (e.g. Linux) or similar licensing or distribution models; and (ii) any software that requires as a condition of use, modification and/or distribution of such software that other software distributed with such software (A) be disclosed or distributed in source code form; (B) be licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or (C) be redistributable at no charge. Publicly Available Software includes, without limitation, software licensed or distributed under any of the following licenses or distribution models, or licenses or distribution models similar to any of the following: (A) GNU's General Public License (GPL) or Lesser/Library GPL (LGPL), (B) The Artistic License (e.g., PERL), (C) the Mozilla Public License, (D) the Netscape Public License, (E) the Sun Community Source License (SCSL), and (F) the Sun Industry Standards License (SISL).
Having a single sign-on has real benefits from the point of view of a non-technical user. End users want the experience that Hailstorm theoretically offers (at least some of the time). They are tired of remembering dozens of separate password. Unfortunately, lots of people don't worry that much about the privacy implications.
Is there a good open source alternative that can provide the same experience?
Interesting site, but their data (at least for where I live in Southern California) is way out of date. I bought my house over a year ago and it still lists the previous selling price.
Good concept, but relying on their data in an active real estate market could get you into trouble.
If you like Guns, Germs, and Steel, you should look at an older, very influential book by William McNeil - Plagues and Peoples.
In many ways, this was the book that really started people thinking about the influence of disease and population growth on human history.
From Amazon's page:
Book Description
Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact--political, demographic, ecological, and psychological--of disease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to the typhoid epidemic in Europe, the history of disease is the history of humankind. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s, another chapter has been added to this chronicle of events, which William McNeill explores in his new introduction to this updated editon.
Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively readable, Plagues and Peoples is that rare book that is as fascinating as it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening. "A brilliantly conceptualized and challenging achievement" (Kirkus Reviews), it is essential reading, offering a new perspective on human history.
Will this matter once games begin including voice as a feature within the game? Tribes 2, for example, includes its own built in voice communication system.
Granted, external programs like GameVoice and Roger Wilco offer some additional feature, but will the average gamer care? I would expect every game that has a team play element to include its own voice technology within a year or two.
We are trying to provide more functionality at the same or better prices every day.
You can take Microsoft to task for a lot of things, but I have to agree that its silly to try to restrict them from adding features to their operating system.
Think about it - do you really want to have to purchase and install as separate items:
a GUI
a disk defragmenter
a browser
an email client
a text editor
etc.
Well, okay, some of the folks that hang out here probably do want to install those things separately, but for most people they want the most functional system they can get with the minimum amount of setup.
Barring any kind of intellectual property issue (remember Stacker?), give me more features that I can use!
The other possibilities would have been Lotus CC:Mail or Novel Groupwise which are both far past their prime and either in need of being severely overhauled, or End-Of-Lifed by their companies.
Aren't you forgetting about Lotus Notes?
Hell, yes, it should be ignored -- even if they have shot someone already. If that's the case, they should be investigating the shooting, not the text.
Easy for you to say if you don't have kids in school, or work in a large office building, or . . .
The honest truth is, it would have been irresponsible for the police to fail to investigate something like this. Read carefully - were they actually punished by the police? No, the police looked into it, determined that there hadn't been a crime, and kept notes on the investigation in case something came up in the future. Sounds like a pretty measured response to me.
Free Speech is not the same as freedom from consequences, and I wouldn't want it to be. I want the freedom to say anything I darn well please - I also want the freedom to hold it against you if you say something I don't like.
That's the whole idea! If words didn't have consequences, why would we care about free speech?
Slashdot Mirror
While you were living in fear and practicing duck and cover, I was wishing I could go on a field trip to Moscow.
I'm not quite old enough for the duck-and-cover days (although I did enjoy The Atomic Cafe)
I wasn't talking about a paralyzing fear, but more about the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times. People make certain assumptions about the way the world is, and I think that those have changed quite a bit in a relatively short span of time. When someone talks about "the nuclear threat" today, they mean something very different from what those words meant back in the 80s.
When I was in high school in the mid-1980s, the idea of a massive nuclear exchange between the US and USSR seemed very real. We had all grown up with the assumption that a nuclear World War was just around the corner.
Now we're more concerned with the rogue state or terrorist nuclear weapon.
I wonder if someone even 10 years younger than I am can understand how much things have changed?
The real trick is to distinguish the prima donnas who contribute from those who don't.
I've worked with prima donnas who were worth every headache they caused, but I've also worked with folks who thought they were worth a lot more than they really were.
Never underestimate how much you can learn from a "useless" project like this. When I'm trying to figure something out, I usually have to come up with a "useless" project to play with. For example, right now I have a truly hideous PHP site hiding in a directory on one of my web sites. The site will never amount to anything, but I'm learning a lot about PHP in the process.
This project strikes me as the same sort of intellectual exercise. It will never produce a useful product, but some of the folks involved may do great things down the road.
We already have real time traffic data in many cities - example San Diego.
Granted, this will supply more data, but I can't see how its going to help congestion much. It's just going to provide more proof that you can't get from point a to point b during rush hour.
Should we be developing substitutes or alternatives for ActiveX instead of trying to recreate it?
We should do both. You can't lose site of the fact that one of the "barriers to entry" for Linux is the complaint that there are still things you can do on a Windows based system (like viewing ActiveX based websites) that you can't do (or can't do easily) on Linux. (Now, don't get me wrong - I generally prefer clean, simple web pages.)
Your point is still a good one, though. While I think that "imitating and emulating Microsoft" is often worthwhile (thank god for SAMBA!), that shouldn't be the only goal.
Of course, we'll have to wait 15-20 years to find out
Quoted from this article, which was linked to in the posted article.
Sounds pretty slick, but wouldn't it still be vulnerable if "bob" or "alice" (from the example in the story) left their computer (or other communication device) where other people had access to it?
Looking at the site, it doesn't say anything about being bootable that I could quickly find. Did the original poster mean bootable as a system, ala DemoLinux, or bootable for installation?
If bootable as a system, that would be something worth checking out!
Having a fully functional system on a disk is extremely handy. I've been using DemoLinux for a while, and having a reasonably full linux system on a bootable CDROM has been darn handy on a number of occasions.
It would be nice to have a DVD version - it would be nice to have the space to install more applications - but on the other hand, there are a lot more systems out today that can boot from a standard CD than from a DVD.
Tha ability of GPL'ed software to outlast companies and organizations that create them is an interesting feature to focus on. Because of this capability, GPL software would seem to have more chances to "get it right" than Microsoft's traditional competitors.
There really doesn't seem to be much impact to MS here. Sounds like a shift from one non-MS solution to another, and probably only on workstations that are already running a non-MS OS. Now, if they start using StarOffice on all their Windows machines, that would be news!
BTW, I've used StarOffice on a Windows platform - its not bad.
Here is the relevant part of the EULA
How would you enforce these kind of restrictions?
"To Serve Man" was also a Twilight Zone episode. One of the best, IMHO.
Having a single sign-on has real benefits from the point of view of a non-technical user. End users want the experience that Hailstorm theoretically offers (at least some of the time). They are tired of remembering dozens of separate password. Unfortunately, lots of people don't worry that much about the privacy implications.
Is there a good open source alternative that can provide the same experience?
Game programmers should aknowledge the fact that there are cheaters and implement an easier way for other players to vote him off the server.
Tribes 2 already has this function.
I don't live their any more, but two good resources:
Houston Area Realtors Association (www.har.com)
The MLS database for Houston
and
Harris County Appraisal District (www.hcad.org/Records/)
a database of the appraisal district's property values.
Interesting site, but their data (at least for where I live in Southern California) is way out of date. I bought my house over a year ago and it still lists the previous selling price.
Good concept, but relying on their data in an active real estate market could get you into trouble.
In many ways, this was the book that really started people thinking about the influence of disease and population growth on human history.
From Amazon's page:
If we could just add the meta tag to the default template in all of the non-Microsoft HTML editors, we could cut down on the impact of this "feature."
Not that it addresses all of the problems, but it's something simple and practical that you can do to avoid having your web pages altered.
Will this matter once games begin including voice as a feature within the game? Tribes 2, for example, includes its own built in voice communication system.
Granted, external programs like GameVoice and Roger Wilco offer some additional feature, but will the average gamer care? I would expect every game that has a team play element to include its own voice technology within a year or two.
You can take Microsoft to task for a lot of things, but I have to agree that its silly to try to restrict them from adding features to their operating system.
Think about it - do you really want to have to purchase and install as separate items:
- a GUI
- a disk defragmenter
- a browser
- an email client
- a text editor
- etc.
Well, okay, some of the folks that hang out here probably do want to install those things separately, but for most people they want the most functional system they can get with the minimum amount of setup.Barring any kind of intellectual property issue (remember Stacker?), give me more features that I can use!
The way to beat Microsoft is by doing it better.
The other possibilities would have been Lotus CC:Mail or Novel Groupwise which are both far past their prime and either in need of being severely overhauled, or End-Of-Lifed by their companies. Aren't you forgetting about Lotus Notes?
Easy for you to say if you don't have kids in school, or work in a large office building, or . . .
The honest truth is, it would have been irresponsible for the police to fail to investigate something like this. Read carefully - were they actually punished by the police? No, the police looked into it, determined that there hadn't been a crime, and kept notes on the investigation in case something came up in the future. Sounds like a pretty measured response to me.
Free Speech is not the same as freedom from consequences, and I wouldn't want it to be. I want the freedom to say anything I darn well please - I also want the freedom to hold it against you if you say something I don't like.
That's the whole idea! If words didn't have consequences, why would we care about free speech?